Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[southall-1998]

I'm liking that little frog, Jerry.

S.

[jandl100]

I'm liking that little frog, Jerry.

S.

Which one?
There's actually two frogs there.
The other one is one shelf up, slightly to the right.

Yes, I know it's a mess - but I actually tidied up a bit before I took the photo.

[southall-1998]

The one almost next to the valve amp.

S.

[jandl100]

Cue the Eagles ... there's a new DAC in town.
On a temporary table while I suss it out and decide whether it is deemed worthy to take its place on the rack.



Arrived today and being played for the past few hours.

The Rega DAC comes with 2 reputations as far as I am concerned - warm, bloomy and over fullsome in the bass - or naturally musical and full toned.

I have to confess I was expecting to hear the former, but no, the latter view is definitely in the ascendant at the moment. -- which will be a disappointment for the person who has asked for 1st refusal after I pipped him to the post in buying it.
Excellent rez (no other word for it). Tonally quite rich and vibrant. Imaging is spot-on, very naturally focused in depth as well as laterally.

Slight feeling of closed-in-ness at the top? - a lack of air. Hmm, I'll see how that goes. Might just be in comparison to the fullsomely rich midband. Also, I've been using the Claymore amp which tends a bit in that direction itself. I'll have to try other amps (like the valve job in the pic) to see what happens with a somewhat leaner amp.

Vocals are very natural.

Mostly quiet music so far, but I'll let her rip tomorrow.

Yep, impressed so far.

Note the Wyred4Sound DAC1 behind it, peering round from behind the wooden shelving leg, wondering if its time has come.

[brian2957]

Which input are you using Jerry . The USB sounds different to the coax input .

Oh.. and have you tried the different filters . Subtle differences in each

[jandl100]

USB at the moment - but I have a cunning plan to enable use of the co-ax for streaming tomorrow.

How does the sound differ?

[brian2957]

The USB sounds a little more '' pipe and slippers '' compared to the coax ( which might be more to your taste )

[jandl100]

The USB sounds a little more '' pipe and slippers '' compared to the coax ( which might be more to your taste )

Hmm. Interesting.

My main source is USB streaming from my laptop.
Problem -- how to convert USB to coax?
I have an expensive way to do it - is there a cheap option?

[brian2957]

Stans Asynch 1 is pretty good http://www.homehifi.co.uk/S/usb.htm

[brian2957]

Or drop this guy a PM and see if he'll accept an offer http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...lity-VLink-192